Wills in Tennessee: what makes one valid, and what happens if you die without one
A Tennessee will needs your signature and two witnesses, not a notary. Die without one and the state decides who gets what, by a list that may not match your family. And either way, with a will or without, what you own in your own name goes through probate court. A will doesn't avoid that. It guarantees it.
What the law requires, what a handwritten will needs, who inherits when there's no will, why a will still means court, and what to do if you'd rather your family skipped it. Written for people who have never done this before.
What makes a will valid in Tennessee
Three things. It's in writing. You sign it, or acknowledge your signature, in front of two witnesses, after telling them it's your will. And the two witnesses sign it in front of you and in front of each other. That's the whole statute. No notary is required for the will itself.
So why does every lawyer-drawn will come with a notary? Because of a second document stapled to it: a self-proving affidavit, where the witnesses swear before a notary to what they saw. With it, the probate court accepts the will without calling the witnesses in to testify. Without it, somebody has to find the witnesses, years later, and get them to court. The affidavit is what makes a will usable, and it's the step the do-it-yourself kits skip.
Sources: Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-104(a) (a will other than a holographic or nuncupative will requires "the signature of the testator and of at least two (2) witnesses"; the testator signs or acknowledges "in the presence of two (2) or more attesting witnesses," who sign "in the presence of the testator; and in the presence of each other"); § 32-2-110 (witnesses may swear an affidavit "before any officer authorized to administer oaths," which the probate court accepts "when the will is not contested as if it had been taken before the court"). No notarization requirement appears in § 32-1-104.The handwritten will
Tennessee does honor a will written entirely in your own hand, with no witnesses at signing: a holographic will. But the signature and every material provision have to be in your handwriting, and when you're gone, two witnesses have to prove to the court that the handwriting is yours. It works in an emergency. As a plan, it's a will that depends on someone being able to find two people who knew your handwriting, and on nobody arguing about what the words meant.
Source: Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-105 ("No witness to a holographic will is necessary, but the signature and all its material provisions must be in the handwriting of the testator and the testator's handwriting must be proved by two (2) witnesses").If you die without a will, Tennessee has one for you
It's called intestate succession, and it's a list. If you leave a spouse and no children, your spouse takes everything. If you leave a spouse and children, your spouse takes a child's share or one-third, whichever is larger, and the children split the rest, which surprises a lot of married people who assumed the house simply went to the survivor. No spouse: your children. No children: your parents. Then brothers and sisters, then grandparents and their descendants. The list doesn't know about the stepchild you raised, the partner you never married, the church, or the child you haven't spoken to in twenty years, who inherits the same as the one who took care of you.
Source: Tenn. Code Ann. § 31-2-104 (surviving spouse with no issue, "the entire intestate estate"; with issue, "either one-third (1/3) or a child's share of the entire intestate estate, whichever is greater"; then issue, parents, siblings and their issue, grandparents). Our wording around the quotes.A will doesn't avoid probate. It guarantees it.
Here's the part the search results don't say plainly. Whether you have a will or not, anything in your own name at your death, the house, the accounts without a named beneficiary, the car, goes to probate court before anyone can touch it. A will is a set of instructions to that court. The court opens a file, appoints your executor, publishes a notice to your creditors and waits out the creditor period, and only then is the house free to be sold or deeded to your kids. Tennessee has a short-form process for small estates, but a house is rarely a small estate.
Vanderpool Law doesn't do probate. We keep families out of it. The tool for that is a funded revocable living trust, with a short pour-over will behind it to catch anything that was missed. In our real estate practice we see the other version every month: a family trying to sell a parent's house, and nobody has the authority to sign the deed. More on living trusts in Tennessee.
Sources: Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-306 (notice to creditors and the creditor claim period); § 30-4-102 (the small-estate affidavit, limited by the size of the estate); our own practice.A will only controls what's in your name alone. The life insurance goes to the beneficiary on the form, not the will. So does the retirement account. The house you own with your spouse as tenants by the entirety goes to your spouse, whatever the will says. Half the "I'll just update my will" conversations we have turn out to be about a beneficiary form somebody filled out twenty years ago.
Source: how beneficiary designations and survivorship ownership pass outside a will, described generally; the proportion is our experience, not a count.What we do
If a will is the right tool for you, we draw one that's signed and witnessed the way the statute says, self-proved before a notary so your executor doesn't go hunting for witnesses, and explained to you in plain English. If it isn't, usually because you own a home, we'll tell you that, and show you what a trust and a pour-over will would look like instead. Whether you need either depends on your situation, and the 30 minutes are where we figure that out. If you already have a will, bring it. Vanderpool Law will always take a look and tell you straight whether what you have is good or bad.
Source: our own practice.What it costs
It depends on what you need: a will on its own, a will for a couple, or a will as the backstop to a trust. That's why we don't print a price. The consultation and the plain-English summary come first, complimentary, so you know your number before you decide.
Source: our own fee practice. No price is printed here on purpose.Without a will, Tennessee's list decides. With one, the court still does. Spend 30 minutes with Vanderpool Law and decide for yourself.
Questions people ask
Open what you want. It's all on the page for search engines and AI assistants too.
Does a will have to be notarized in Tennessee?
No. The will needs your signature and two witnesses. The notary is for the self-proving affidavit that goes with it, so the court can accept the will without calling the witnesses. Vanderpool Law self-proves every will we draw.
Sources: Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-104(a); § 32-2-110.Can I write my own will in Tennessee?
You can. A will entirely in your handwriting and signed by you is valid without witnesses, if two people can later prove the handwriting is yours. A typed form is valid if you sign it in front of two witnesses who sign in front of you and each other. What a homemade will usually lacks is the self-proving affidavit, clear language, and any thought about probate, which it doesn't avoid.
Sources: Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-105; § 32-1-104(a); § 32-2-110.What happens to the house if there's no will in Tennessee?
If it was in your name alone, it goes through probate and then to your heirs under the state's list: a spouse and children share it, or the children take it, and so on. A house owned with your spouse as tenants by the entirety passes to the spouse outside probate. A house deeded to a living trust passes by the trust, no court.
Sources: Tenn. Code Ann. § 31-2-104; tenancy by the entirety and trusts described generally.Does a will avoid probate in Tennessee?
No. A will is instructions to the probate court. What avoids probate is owning things in a way that passes them outside your estate: a funded revocable living trust, survivorship ownership, and beneficiary designations. A trust goes with a short pour-over will, not instead of one.
Sources: Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-306 (the creditor period every probate estate waits through); our own practice.Is probate required in Tennessee?
If anything was in your sole name with no beneficiary, yes, somebody has to go to court for the authority to deal with it. Tennessee has a simplified affidavit process for small estates, with a dollar limit set by statute, but a house almost always puts an estate over it. Planning ahead is how families avoid it.
Source: Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-102 (small-estate affidavit); the limit is in the statute and not printed here because it changes.What's a pour-over will?
The short will that goes with a living trust. It says: anything I forgot to put in my trust, put it there now. It's the backstop, not the plan. If the trust was funded properly, the pour-over will may never need to be probated at all.
Sources: Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-3-106 (a devise "may be made by a will to the trustee or trustees of a trust established or to be established by the testator"); our own practice.Who inherits if I have no spouse and no children?
Your parents, if living. If not, your brothers and sisters, and the children of any who have died. If none, your grandparents and their descendants, split between your mother's side and your father's. If one side has nobody, the other side takes it all.
Source: Tenn. Code Ann. § 31-2-104(b).How much does a will cost in Tennessee?
It depends on what you need, which is why we don't print a price. The 30-minute consultation is complimentary and ends with a plain-English summary and your number, before you decide anything. Bring any will you already have; the review is complimentary too.
Source: our own fee practice.